Unico

With three children under the age of ten, a small, thriving chain of hair salons and a rapidly growing range of beautiful natural haircare products, Melbourne’s Sofia Basile has a lot on her plate.

And the owner and director of UNICO Hair wouldn’t have itany other way.

Since launching, UNICO has become a popular destination for Melbourne’s style set and the salons have accumulated a number of industry awards and accolades, including 1st place in 2001’s HBIA awards in creative colour. Sofia now employs 14 salon and sales staff and ‘never say never’ is her coy response to whether more salons are planned.

Far from resting on her laurels, Sofia’s spare time is spent working on the UNICO Formulations range of luxurious, natural and Australian-made haircare products.

“When I started hairdressing, I suffered badly from dermatitis on my hands, which almost made me consider another career. I tried some natural products which made such a difference, but I didn’t like the fact that they were imported. I noticed a real gap in the market for a homegrown eco- friendly professional hair range that actually worked, so I set about developing the perfect formulation. I released the UNICO Formulations range in late 2008 and could not be happier with the products.”

Derived from pure plant ingredients and enriched with vitamins and essential oils, UNICO Formulations products are free from all nasties such as parabens and SLS. The 11 gorgeous products are available in selected salons nationally and at adorebeauty.com.au.

Unico hair care creator Sofia Bastille discusses, her favourite product - the Unico Protein Treatment, which can be used by everybody. 

With the environmental focus Sofia has on her range, many of the treatments are created for our Australian Climate. The Unico Protein Treatment is great for hair that has had high amounts of sun exposure, making a nourishing treatment for any warm climates, and the Leave-In Conditioner is rich in UV filters to reduce colour fade and damage from the sun. 

When Sofia created Unico hair care she wanted a range that was locally made and built on a foundation of pure plant ingredients, vitamins and essential oils.  The focus was on botanicals and vitamins that would nourish the hair and in this video Sofia discusses one of the star ingredients Vitamin B5, which can help with hair loss.